ntists now figure that the world is losing about twenty million hectares of tropical forests annually. It has been suggested that the high deforestation rates are caused partially by the fact that the new surveys are more accurate and thus reveal old deforestation rates that were miscalculated with previous methods (Westoby, 202). At first there was concern only among foresters about deforestation but now the public has created organizations such as Green Peace to facilitate increased awareness and reduce deforestation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O.) has worked mainly within the forestry community to find new and better ways to manage the forests. In 1985 there was the introduction of the Tropical Forestry Action Plan or T.F.A.P. This plan involved the F.A.O, United Nations, World Bank, other developmental agencies, and several other multi-national government organizations; together they developed a new strategy. More than sixty countries have decided to prepare national forestry action plans to manage their forests (Gallant, 381). Tropical deforestation has various direct causes: permanent conversion of forests to agricultural land, logging, demand for fuel-wood, forest fires and drought. Slash and burn clearing is the single greatest cause of tropical rain forest destruction world wide. Air pollution is also a major threat to the forests in the northern hemisphere and is expected to increase. Reduced growth, defoliation and eventual death occur in most affected forests. From 1850 to 1980 the greatest forest losses occurred in North America, Middle East, South Asia and China. The highest rates of deforestation per year are now in South America and Asia (Zuckerman, 219). Over the last two decades the world became interested in the loss of tropical forests as a result of expanding agriculture, ranching and grazing, fuel-wood collection and timber exportation. The consequences are increased soil erosion, irregu...
